Flooring

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I need to put new flooring down in our house. Downstairs is concrete, upstairs is board, both need covering! Ideally would like to avoid wood. So what is the next most ecologically sound floor covering?

I've been looking at cork and bamboo but I'm still researching to see the environmental impact.

Cork is wonderful stuff. I have no idea why it isn't more popular. It is warm to walk on, easy to clean, perfect for babies learning to walk...

Upstairs I would put a British wool carpet, it is warm, helps stop noise travelling and wool is sustainable. There are some lovely (but pricey) undyed wool carpets so they vary with the colour of the sheep. Axminster do an underlay called axfelt which is a recycled product. Again it is more money and not as soft/squishy as a rubber underlay but we have a mixture in our house and I think the carpet with the axfelt is wearing better but then that could also be the quality of the carpet.

Domesticslattern is cork hard wearing? Water and stain resistant?Cork notice boards look shabby pretty quickly but they are having pins stuck in them all the time. I know that cork forests were being chopped down because there is less market for the cork with the rise of plastic wine stoppers. Cork flooring could be a really good way to help preserve that ecosystem.

That's one of the reasons I like cork, the industry is preserving the forests and it comes from Portugal so fewer transport miles.

Re durability, the only real life house I know was a couple who has no children but they did have a very active dog. Their hallway always looked amazing with the cork laid in an intricate parquet style.

Ohh thank you, cork is definitely one to look into.

How do you keep clothes moths off a wool carpet? We get them most years (I think they come from the Swift nests in the attic) and I imagine the larvae could cause quite allot if damage to a wool carpet.

Thats good tips about the underlay, thank you, I will look out for those

I've always wanted jute carpeting ever since I visited a plantation, they had just done a lifecycle analysis and were zero net carbon. You can fit it with natural latex adhesive which is plastic free as well. www.nakedflooring.co.uk/blog/carpets-and-the-environment-an-eco-warriors-guide/?acceptcookies=true

I'm pretty sure clothes moths will be nothing to do with the nests but if you have a problem with them then yes they could damage a carpet especially under furniture and places that you can't hoover regularly. We had moths in one house. They were a complete nightmare to get rid of. You have my sympathy.